[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by axel77

Actually if you read the judge words, these werent't hers to "permit" to start with. If other similar books contain more original content and a better job of paraphrasing, they would be legal, if JKR likes it or not. This book just happens to be judged to have stepped a leap to far over they gray area that is the legal line.

Fair enough; I chose my words badly. To clarify: she didn't attempt to have them stopped, because, as you said, they were fair use. The Lexicon was not.

Also note about the charity things. She acts in my very humble oppinion much as a slave to the publishers desire (see for example e-books).

I think you have that backwards; the publishers would probably love to put the Potter books out as e-books (and I'd love to buy them) but JKR doesn't allow it. They're bending to her will--and it's very much her right. They are her property and she chooses how to license them. I don't agree with her choices, but that doesn't change the fact that it IS her choice, whether the fans like it or not. She owns Harry Potter. We don't.

That her earnings of this books are going to charity is a good thing, but it by far does not mean that he winning charge (how ever you call that term professionally) of the publisher goes into the same channels, her publisher AFAIK happily takes the money as gains of her charity books, which is likely to be at least the same amount she would get.

But several people in this thread referred to her as greedy and wanting to keep all the money to be made from the Lexicon (which isn't as much as a Potter encyclopedia written by JKR herself), and that's simply not true, which was my point. Her publisher(s) are businesses, and the purpose of a business is to make a profit, so it's illogical to fault them for it.

And as said, behind this story still flies the impression of online or electronic media to be of far less value, so nobody cared as long it wasn't paper, which is IMHO a loss for us. Yeah yeah, before you post, I know the online website had in difference to that lexicion more original content, and was organised more altruisticly, but still that emotion of worthlessness of electronic media IMHO still is carried with this around.

I think JKR's opinion toward e-books is a separate issue from the "worth" of the Lexicon. It wasn't "worth less" because it was electronic. The Lexicon website still violated her copyright, but because no one was making (much) money from it, she ignored it (they really couldn't do much about it anyway). She knew that the value of the Lexicon site to the fans was not monetary. When it was attempted to make a profit by a business (see what I said above about the purpose of business), she (and the WB) stepped in; and even then, attempted to get information about it and resolve the situation without legal intervention, until the publisher forced the issue.

Thing is, JKR doesn't want e-books of her novels, but they're out there anyway. At least if she allowed legal versions, she'd have some control over the product. The illegal products, quite frankly, stink. I'd love to have really well-designed e-books of the Potter books, and would happily pay for them, though I've paid for all of the books in hardback already. Her viewpoint about e-books is, in my opinion, short-sighted and a bit Luddite-ish and makes me extremely impatient, but she's within her rights to hold it.